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I check out a lot of smart home technology and my home is often full of robots rolling on the floor, voice assistants talking, and notifications sounding from my phone. Most smart home devices in my home have a short lifespan – once they’re tested, they’re out – but the ones I really love, I keep. Here are the ones that impressed me enough to keep me coming back to them.
The Brisk It Grill is my favorite smoker
Photo credit: Amanda Blum
I spent the summer with six smart grills on my patio, and I used it often with friends. While there were a few that really impressed me (the Kamado Konnected Joe, the Masterbuilt Auto Ignite 545 Digital Charcoal Grill), I kept the Brisk It Origin. It’s more of a smart smoker than a smart grill smoked perfectly and with very little effort on my part. You simply choose what you want to cook on your phone, send the recipe to the grill, and place your food on the grill as instructed. The grill does most of the work by raising and lowering the temperature and regulating the amount of smoke. I’ve never had a passion for smoking (or grilling, to be honest), but the Brisk It requires so little effort that I often use it as an easy alternative to my oven. It turns out that you can smoke almost anything.
The BedJet 3 is my favorite luxury model
The BedJet is a smart bed climate control that shoots air into a billowing top sheet that hangs above you like a cloud. You decide how cold, hot and powerful you want the air to be and can use it to cool you down on hot nights or to warm you and your bedding on cold nights. My favorite BedJet setting is Turbo, which gives me a 110-degree jet of air, and there’s nothing more luxurious for me to climb into bed on a cold night. It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing piece of technology—basically an air tube hanging from the end of your bed—but I love it.
The Smart Coop helped me get my first chickens
Photo credit: Amanda Blum
I finally got chickens this year, and that’s thanks, at least in part, to the Smart Coop: a fully functional chicken coop with smart cameras. These cameras have AI that can count your chickens, identify intruders, and notice an egg from the nesting box (and I love watching my sleeping chickens in closed-loop video). The double-walled chicken coop provides insulation to protect my chickens from extreme weather conditions and the run is a good size for my flock of four.
I am still using my PlusLife Molecular COVID test
Photo credit: Amanda Blum
I still use one Rapid at-home PCR COVID testand if you have vulnerable friends or family members who PlusLife NAAT test device is a real gift. It’s the easiest way to quickly and reliably find out if I have COVID or just allergies. As an interesting bonus, this particular test connects via Bluetooth virus.sucks and displays a test assay graph in real time – so I can see exactly how much virus has been detected, rather than a simple “positive” or “negative” test result. I find it both fascinating and calming.
Dreo are my favorite smart fans
This year I tried four Dreo smart fans including Ceiling fans, standing fans, and table fans, and they are some of the best fans I have ever used. You can easily adjust the strength and direction of a Dreo fan via an app, and it’s easy to disassemble for cleaning. The best feature, however, is the “natural” setting, which varies the power of the fan so that it feels less like an artificial wind and more like a breeze. If you want to start with a Dreo, I recommend the Polyfan.
The Oura Ring is my favorite fitness tracker
There’s already an Oura 4 on the market, but since I put the Oura 3 in my hand a few months ago, it’s become almost addictive. It tracks my sleep, steps and energy levels and I can transfer the data to other health apps I use, such as: Guava. I particularly often use my sleep data to assess whether I need to adjust my sleeping conditions. Wearing my Oura ring has become a habit and I use it so much that I knew I had to replace it when I misplaced it last month.
The K10+ Pro is my favorite robot vacuum cleaner
I have Favorite vacuum cleanerand you’ll hear me talk about Roborock a lot, but my favorite is the K10 from Switchbot. This year, the K10+ Pro improved by ditching the mopping function and letting the K10 shine as a budget super vacuum that’s small enough to get around obstacles in a tight radius – like an M&M moving across the floor. If you’re looking for a complete robot vacuum and mop, you should still consider getting a Roborock, but for any small home, office or room that simply needs a great vacuum at a great price, the K10+ Pro is perfect the right thing is a great way.
The Terra Kaffe TK-02 is my favorite smart espresso maker
I tested every smart espresso maker on the market, and the product I least wanted to return was this Terra Coffee TK-02. It makes very good coffee and foam and is easy to use via the app or touchscreen. I particularly liked that I could pre-fill beans from time to time and change the water every few days, and otherwise run the machine from start to finish.
Photo credit: Amanda Blum
The Bird Buddy is my favorite birdhouse
Photo credit: Amanda Blum
What can I say, I love watching birds – especially my hummingbirds. Unlike previous Bird Buddies that don’t hold a solar charge well, the Hummingbird feeder is fantastic. The video and images are stunning and meant to be shared, and it also makes a fantastic gift (for you if no one else). You can even name your favorite birds with the new Bird Buddy subscription.
The Mammotion Luba is my favorite robotic lawnmower
Photo credit: Amanda Blum
On my block, I tested robotic lawnmowers on the lawns of everyone who would let me. For me a robotic lawnmower was the clear winner: the Mammotion Luba. It reliably left the dock, mowed the lawn regardless of light and weather conditions, and returned to the dock. The Luba wasn’t worried about dips in the grass or on hills, and she traversed rocky paths and anything else I threw at her. It’s obviously pricey at almost $3,000, but it may be worth the investment if you’re looking for the best robotic lawnmower for your lawn.
